If I sell my house, why would I allow the sales and marketing exposure to be limited in any way?

Michael Bracken:

Abbott appears to be sorely misguided in his actions. Last January, I purchased a beach house in San Diego to be a vacation home for myself and my family. I actually found the house on Zillow ... then went to Trulia (it had more pictures and information) and eventually worked through the listing agent (that had posted onto Trulia)... Jeff Cole. Mr. Abbott, in my own business I recognize that certain aspects of social media can be detrimental, but in this case, you should applaud these sites that provide additional exposure to the market. Maybe you desire that the MLS shuns the net altogether and you go back to the "Listings Book" that is published every couple of weeks and we go to your office to see if any of the product matches our needs?

Andrew Miller:

Why Does Abbott view it as the intellectual property of the real estate company when it's a series of picture of MY house and details of MY house (which are all publicly available) that I'm trying to sell to the largest audience possible?

Christopher Schrom:

Talk about completely going the wrong way. My wife and I just bought a house and we had a buyer agent only represent us. Bottom line, from a buyer's perspective Zillow, Redfin and Trulia are invaluable tools that save time and inform the buyer.

Yes, you DO need a skilled agent but what Abbott is completely missing is that Zillow, Trulia and RedFin are merely tools that the buyer and the agent need to leverage. They don't replace the agent, they enhance the agent to client experience...

Mark Hallerberg:

I am an out of town buyer based in Germany. I check Zillow often, not only to look for opportunities but to get a feel for how the market looks. So I won't see ARG properties anymore as an out of town buyer. I don't see how this is my loss, though if I were trying to sell a property through ARG I would drop them.